Pure Blood
by breather89
Summary: A new cleaner comes to the Dumping Ground. By midnight, six children are missing. Everyone tries to work out what happened to them, but the cleaner and her friends have something in mind for them...
1. Chapter 1

Elizabeth

_No! She could hardly get out of the chair. She had no idea how she'd even got here. All she knew was that she'd been at the children's home in Devon. But at just fourteen years old, her life was being dragged away._

_Her head hung over the clean white tub, as someone held her head down._

_Her legs were weak and she felt dizzy. She stumbled, her heels breaking. She coughed, before crashing._

_The woman in the red dress looked at her, before turning to her accomplice. "In the sea," she barked quickly, "or in the churchyard."_

_As the girl's body was dragged away, the woman looked at the list she'd been given. Another set of children's homes. The ideal victims were children just about to leave, and that was who she'd taken while in Britain. It was easier in the old country, but circumstances forced her to go here._

_And now ten girls lay dead, as did two boys, either thrown over cliffs or dumped in alleys as mugging victims or left for animals._

_The next place was Ashdene Ridge. She would have hers soon_.

Faith opened the door at about half six that evening. She turned and called, "Mike, she's here!"

A new cleaner was employed at Ashdene Ridge, for a few weeks. She was here while the children stayed here over the holidays, and she was actually younger than Faith expected.

She looked maybe a bit older than May-Li, with long brown hair, small black eyes, rather pale skin, around five foot five, looking rather bored and tired.

"Is this the right house?" she snapped. She sounded foreign, perhaps Polish, Faith thought.

"This is Ashdene Ridge," she answered quickly, as the woman came in. Faith noticed her clothes – a red skirt just past her knees and a black top with long sleeves. The woman turned, "Where's the owner?"

She must have got a language problem, Faith decided as she opened the door to the office, where Mike was.

Mike looked up. "Oh, hi Elizabeth," he said, tidying away some files, "I didn't know you were coming."

She smiled. "I think you need to work out your schedule a bit more," then went on, "but I need to work rather late tonight, I need to get a bit of extra money done and I can fix everything. I'm not going to be long. I'll just need a bit of time."

Mike smiled, "Of course. If you – need a bit more, than I'll be glad to help you."

Faith frowned. There was something about Elizabeth, but she didn't know what it was.

Elizabeth went upstairs, where she took out her phone. It was old and fiddly, but her accomplices got it for her because where she was from, there weren't any phones.

"Yes?" her accomplice asked.

"I arrived just now. There's quite a few here."

"OK, can you tell if they're all virgins?"

She answered, "I'll see. Do you want me to do the blood test?"  
"Sure. Just as long as you get them to the barn."

Elizabeth smiled, hanging up. Putting the phone away, she got out the bucket and mop from the closet and began cleaning.

***A few hours later, Elizabeth had managed to clean every room, pick up sweet packets and drink bottles, and feel as if she couldn't breathe when going in the boys' rooms.

She'd worked out six of them were fourteen and over, the rest were younger. The older children, particularly the two girls, would probably want to be with her. Trust her. Go with her to the barn in the country.

Elizabeth was going to get these kids.

And make sure they never returned.

***May-Li was on night shift. Nights now were rather light, but she didn't want to have to go outside.

Rick, Frank and Bailey were outside playing football, Faith was in her room, Floss, Harry and Mo were in the den, Carmen was on the computer, Jody and Tyler were watching a movie in Jody's room, and Johnny and Tee were outside.

She was just having five minutes to herself in the office.

Then the office door opened and she saw the new cleaner come in.

"Oh, hi. You're the new cleaner, aren't you?" she asked.

The skinny woman nodded. "Yes. Elizabeth. And you?"

"May-Li." She put her hand out, but Elizabeth looked at her like she was a cockroach.

"Would you like a kettle of tea?" Elizabeth asked hastily.

May-Li raised an eyebrow. "A cup of tea?"

Elizabeth giggled, an odd, hard one. "Sorry. My English needs helping."

Then May-Li noticed the necklace round Elizabeth's neck. She couldn't see all of it, but it looked posh, a silver thread.

"What's that?" May-Li asked. Elizabeth stopped smiling and looked down.

"Mine. And _you_ can't look at it."

Elizabeth left suddenly. May-Li noticed she walked funny, with short strides, her feet pointed. She didn't walk like other people.

There was something about Elizabeth, but she couldn't work it out.

Soon, she saw Elizabeth in the kitchen, making a cup of tea. "Oh, hey Elizabeth. Would you like any help finding anything?" she asked.

Elizabeth smiled, shaking her head. "No, I've found everything I need."

As May-Li turned her back, Elizabeth got out a bottle from her pocket and dropped red liquid in the cup.

Later, when everyone was in bed, May-Li started locking up the study, ready to pay Elizabeth for her cleaning and make herself a snack.

But as she passed the front door, she could hear talking. She saw at least a few torches as she stood still.

"Is there another entrance?"

"No, she said just the bathroom."

"All right. How many?"

"Six. She said take a spare."

May-Li just stood still, listening. Then she heard screaming from upstairs. Running up, she felt herself being thrown onto the floor. It was by someone very strong, as she had just been flung, and their hands were tight round her throat!

She kept reaching up to pull them off, but then they just seemed to run off, leaving her gasping for breath.

She heard Faith swear upstairs, as well as Frank. And then she heard Harry and Floss crying. Then the two ran downstairs, seeing May-Li.

"What's happening?" she managed to ask.

"There's people upstairs!" Floss whimpered. "And they're wearing black and they're holding knives!"

May-Li struggled getting up, but she managed, just before she heard a window slam.

She staggered to the main door, opened it slightly and saw a van outside. She couldn't see it properly, but guessed it was perhaps grey or dark blue.

She looked right at the people there. They all wore black, but even in the dim light, she could see someone.

Someone smiling at her.

Elizabeth.

A few hours later, Faith woke up. She groaned as she put a hand to her head.

She remembered her kidnap.

_She'd been in her room when she heard shouting from the hallway. She'd run out to see a man wrestling Johnny to the ground._

_Someone had grabbed her by her hair and held her arm with another hand. She'd been picked up and someone had dragged her across to the bathroom window. She'd kicked and slapped the person but somehow they managed to get down the wall holding her._

Now she was in a small, dim room. As she looked, she could see some light. It was from a window, at least seven feet off the ground.

The room was also musty, wet and cold. As she felt the floor, she realised it was stone.

She was in a dungeon.

Well, possibly somewhere underneath an old house, or a group of rooms that may have once been a dungeon converted into storage, but she was definitely somewhere cold and hard, possibly locked in.

She saw the door, and it creaked open slowly as a woman stood there, holding a candle.

It was Elizabeth.

Faith looked up at her. "What do you want?" she demanded, shivering from cold and fear.

Elizabeth laughed softly. "You're mine now. And you'll stay mine until August 10th. Full moon that day. And you're going to be so good for me."

Faith quivered.

"What?"

Elizabeth then knelt by her and told Faith, "Thing is, I'm not going to hesitate to kill you."

**A/N: Well, do you like it so far? Oh, and can anyone guess who Elizabeth is? It's a bit hard, but I'll reveal more about her in the next chapter.**

**And this is a horror story, so there will be some scary points later on, but I'm sorry this is a bit short.**

**Remember to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Virgin

When police came round and questioned everyone, May-Li just felt worn out. She'd said that the people who broke in only took certain children, leaving Harry and Floss screaming on the landing.

They'd taken Faith, Rick, Bailey, Frank, Johnny and Carmen. The teenagers of Ashdene Ridge. True, Tee was also a teenager, but why they hadn't taken her, May-Li didn't know.

But she had several ideas running through her mind.

And they were all horrible.

She knew that cleaner had been strange from the second she saw her. Something odd about her.

But exactly where the children were now was something she didn't want to think about. And at the same time, never away from her mind.

The children left behind, especially Tee, were all confused and miserable. Tee didn't want to talk.

But May-Li knew that something had to be done.

Several hours after the police had left, she went in the kitchen. She saw the stone-cold cup of tea on the side and poured it down the sink.

Then she saw a strange, red liquid inside.

After calling back the policeman on the case, she asked what it was. His eyes went wide.

"We believe it's the same unknown liquid found at four other children's homes in the last few months." He told her.

May-Li asked, "What is it?"

"Well, it's difficult to say. We can't trace it but it's made staff at the homes fall asleep. Some for up to thirty-six hours. They didn't see the children being taken."

Then his face fell. "And…around a week ago we found that some people had been digging in a graveyard. We dug it up and we found the body of a girl who vanished from a children's home with four others. We haven't found the others, but we think the people we're dealing with are vicious."

May-Li stuttered, not wanting to know the answer, "And…was she-"

"There's no evidence. But her throat was cut."

May-Li's blood ran cold as she thought about it. Who would just take children and murder them like that?  
***Faith opened her eyes as the door opened. She saw someone standing there.

Not Elizabeth. This was a man, dressed in a weird, purple outfit.

She managed to stand, putting her back against the wall.

"Don't – you even think about it," Faith hissed at him, "I don't want any."

The man instead slammed a tray down on the floor. Two slices of bread, a small square of butter, and a cup of tea.

"What's that?" Faith asked, looking up, confused.

The man simply told her, "Breakfast, child." He sounded foreign. "You eat."

Then she demanded, "What – are you planning to do to me?"

He laughed. A very nasty one. He muttered, not thinking Faith could hear him, "Fekete tehen."

Then he told her, "All in good time. Elizabeth will be pleased when she finds out."

"The cleaning lady? She's just horrible." Faith told him.

The man then slapped her on the cheek, fast and hard. "You _do not_ say that about Erzsebet."

"I thought she was called Elizabeth." Faith asked.

"In our country, her name is Erzsebet," The man told her, "she has been very kind to me and she has helped me from my poverty so I obey her word. Also, I must, as I am of no use to her since I was married."

Faith asked, "What does that mean?"

He laughed again. "I am not a virgin."

Faith asked, scared, "Why does she need virgins?"

He simply slammed the door. "You'll find out in time."

***May-Li was reading about the other murders online.

_June 11__th__ – Seven children from Backshall Home in Cumbria have vanished. Judith Jones, 15, Amie Hands, 15, Chloe Worth, 15, Annie Mouston, 16, Lacey Burns, 17, Andrew Georges, 16, and Admed Fazel, 16, have all vanished from the home between 9.00pm and 6.00am. At present, it is unknown who would take the children, except that police are looking for a woman in her late twenties, who may use the names Elizabeth, Bess, Katalin or Orsolya. She is believed to have come from Hungary, Slovakia or Austria._

So May-Li began looking.

She typed in _children missing orphanage_ and after scrolling down, found something in another language.

It looked Russian, so she looked in.

Five years ago, five girls had vanished from an orphanage at the border, four found dumped at a graveyard. The last one was found in a stable over ten miles away.

When May-Li clicked on the photographs of the girls, taken after their deaths, she almost threw up.

She then looked through articles online, from foreign newspapers. Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Slovenia.

Children, mostly girls, and mostly in groups of five, missing or murdered in Eastern Europe. Some found in graveyards or washed up on beaches.

It went back far. The oldest article she could find was from 1992. Of course, as it came from mostly Soviet Union countries, it could go back really far, maybe decades.

But she knew that something was up.

***Carmen opened her eyes.

Even though it was hard to sleep in a room that was cold and made of stone, she'd managed.

Now she watched as the door opened and two women came in.

They were dressed in black and purple, one carried a long black bag.

She sat up.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Then one of them grabbed her arms and held her down.

Carmen screamed loudly, kicking, before she soon stopped.

From the dungeon, all that was seen was the small light of a torch and then the two women left, bolting the door behind them.

Elizabeth was in her main room, with a red, large Edwardian couch and a small coffee table with herbal tea.

The lamp swung above her, the only light in the whole set of rooms, as the two women, as well as two young men, came in.

"Well?" she asked.

The older of the women, a stern woman in her thirties, told her, "Both of the young girls are virgins."

Elizabeth smiled. She turned to the men. "And the four boys?"

One of the men, who now had teeth marks on his arm, answered, "At least three are. One of the boys was too violent and bit me."

"Which one?"

"You said he was called Bailey."

Elizabeth put her tea down. "It's enough," she said, as she walked to the main door, which led out to the rest of the ruined castle, "we have at least five. If we don't need him, you know what you should do."

One of the women asked, "Which weapon?"

Elizabeth played with the idea. "Whichever one you decide. But let me see."

She didn't want what happened in Germany again.

May-Li was in the den, head in hands, as she heard Mike talking with the police officers, telling them he had no idea he had got a criminal for a cleaner. But all May-Li was wondering, if they _didn't_ want the kids for – that – what did they want them for?

And those pictures.

The pictures of the Russian girls…

She couldn't understand. Why would someone just do that?

Then she looked at one article. It was from Germany.

_Charlotte B, 17, was almost killed by a supposed black magic killer in West Germany. Four of Charlotte's friends were also taken on December 26__th__ 1982. Charlotte is the only one recovered._

_On the early morning of New Year's Eve, hikers found Charlotte while walking in the Alps near Gipfelbahn. They saw the young woman only because of her brown hair; she was dressed in white._

_Charlotte and her friends, who had not been found, all aged between fifteen and seventeen, were living at an orphanage in Bad Hindelang when they disappeared on Boxing Day. Charlotte was rushed to hospital after several cuts and broken bones were discovered._

_When she was well enough to talk, on 2__nd__ January, she said that she'd been held in a cold place, possibly a cabin in the Alps. She had been locked in a windowless room and some women had checked her over._

_However, they seemed disappointed and Charlotte says she was almost murdered when they cut her throat._

_Charlotte does not remember much of her time there, but in January and February, the bodies of her four friends were found across the Alps, all with their throats cut._

_What baffles police is that there were no signs of any assault on the girls, nor how the abductors had held them high up in the mountains without taking the ski lift nearby._

_What is known is that all the girls were found in white loose-fitting gowns that were not theirs._

May-Li froze.

A black magic organization?

It seemed to fit.

May-Li had difficulty finding Charlotte.

It wasn't just that she didn't have her surname shown, it was thirty years ago and in another country.

But soon, May-Li found the woman and when she'd dialled the number, she heard a woman answer.

"Ja?"

May-Li asked, "English?"

Then the woman switched. "Who is this?" her accent was really strong.

May-Li didn't know if she should do this, making a woman relive the worst moments of her life. But if it was to help the Ashdene residents and anyone else the organization could come across, it had to work.

"Is this Charlotte?"  
"I am Charlotte." Quaky.

"I am from England. I – six children have gone. We – think your-"

Then she heard Charlotte breathe heavily. "I can speak fluent English, ma'am. Who are you?"

"English police," May-Li lied, "and we think that six children who disappeared yesterday may be involved."

Charlotte then asked, sounding like a frightened girl, "Was one Erzsebet?"

"Erzsebet?"

"That means 'Elizabeth'."

May-Li gingerly told her, "The cleaner was Elizabeth."

Charlotte sighed. "Erzsebet – she called herself Lisel then, she is a cruel woman. When she was in Bad Hindelang, she worked for us from November. Liesel was a callous woman, she hurt us-"

May-Li then interrupted, "But was it her? I mean, Elizabeth was only a bit older than me."

"When this happened, she was about late twenties."

That made no sense. Elizabeth didn't look much older than her. Unless this black magic thing was to keep her young.

"On…Boxing Day…my friends and I went to bed at about half ten. Brunhilda, Brigetta, Gretl and Hedda. I loved them.

"Then I woke up in a dark place. I was chained to the wall and I heard heavy breathing. I learnt it was Hedda. And soon, some women came in and…I'm still embarrassed to talk about it. And I blacked out quite a lot. But after a few days, I saw the women drag my friends out to the mountain.

"I saw as they pulled me that they'd put the girls on this set of bathtubs. Probably bathtubs. They were freezing and there were black candles. I…"

Charlotte stayed quiet for so long, May-Li wondered if she was still there.

"My friends…the news lied because the police didn't reveal everything. The blood went in the tubs. They needed…the blood of virgins."

May-Li asked, "And you?" then she blushed and didn't want to imagine what Charlotte was thinking. "Never mind," she gabbled, "but you?"

"Elizabeth cut my throat herself. And threw me down the side of the mountain. The interesting thing about the cold night is that is if you're bleeding, it simplky freezes."

May-Li couldn't imagine the exhausted, dying young woman left by the mountain. It was too horrible.

"Do…you know where they were before?" May-Li asked.

"Well, Elizabeth said that she'd come from Slovakia. They'd come to Germany…as they needed more virgins."

May-Li shivered as she thought about this. She was in such a difficult situation.

She worried about what could be happening to the children.

***Elizabeth relaxed in her room, reminiscing the old country.

When she'd been young, she had made the maids entertain her. She used to throw buckets of cold water over them and they'd be pretty, sparkling ice statues. She also liked girls then, the peasants were _so_ disposable.

Now, it was hard to find real virgins.

In her day, a girl who wasn't married was incredibly likely to be a virgin; no one cared about the guys. A posh woman that had never married was more likely to be a virgin, as they would be surrounded by their maids all the time.

Now, it was really hard to look for anyone, especially in the western world. So she'd got her servants. She'd had lots of them, mostly laid off men from Eastern Europe, or women with small medical training. Ones who spoke the same language as her.

Elizabeth smiled as she thought about how she'd got away with this for so long. But she'd managed. And now, in five days, on the full moon, she would have another sacrifice.

**A/N: OK, can anyone guess who Elizabeth is? She's an actual historical figure, but I'd recommend that you only look her up if you're sixteen or over.**


	3. Chapter 3

Blood Countess

**A/N: OK, I'm going to reveal who Elizabeth is in this chapter. And we're getting close to the climax, so sorry it's a short story. By the way, reviews are like cookies. Can't get enough!**

Elizabeth lay back on her chair, a glass of vintage wine in her hand.

She'd worked so hard to get where she was now. And not only would it now have been four hundred years since her second marriage, but it would be a full moon.

***Elizabeth was the Blood Countess, the Tigress. Whatever you called her, she was the Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary.

What everyone said about her was true. That she'd abducted several young, unmarried girls from the country, offering them to be maids at her castle. And she'd tortured them. Along with her helpers.

And yes, it was truth that she had bathed in their blood.

Bathing in virgins' blood, she'd become young again. She didn't notice at first, as when she'd started, she was in her forties and still looked older, but after she tried a certain method, five virgins at a full moon, after chanting, she looked years younger.

So she'd done that.

Unfortunately, she began to age again, after her arrest in 1610, and when she was under house arrest, walled in with just a slit for food, pale and desperate, she'd made an agreement.

She'd agreed with the Devil.

And on 10th August 1614, she'd made an agreement. Eternal youth, as long as she provided virgins at the full moon at least six times a year.

Of course, Elizabeth was greedy. She did more than six.

Just eleven days after she married again, to the Devil, as the agreement, she was so pale and useless that she crashed on the floor.

She'd been taken out, announced as dead.

The problem was, nobody had proper training in those days. They didn't see if she _was_ actually dead.

She woke up in a coffin and had got scared. But then, some of her old servants, who hadn't been punished due to no evidence of them taking part – and some hadn't - had dug up the Countess, aiming to give her a burial where they could look after her.

That was the thing with servants back then. Willing to do anything. Because the alternatives were harsher.

Elizabeth had woken and told them she needed virgins.

Of course, they'd had to go away.

They'd gone to what was now Romania, and then later Greece.

Elizabeth stayed young and beautiful and she killed in about eight times a year.

Her servants kept track of the full moon, and when she got more across the years, she made sure they could read and write first.

She'd managed to avoid the problems of Eastern Europe over the last four hundred years. But she'd got some easily.

There had been a lot of revolutions, which helped, because if young virgins disappeared, everyone assumed they were victims of the troubles.

As time went by, she'd found it really hard to take the young girls, so she and her servants went after young men as well. She hadn't wanted to before, but these young men were too focused on getting their hard work gone, on business problems and some were just in rural places.

They wouldn't have time to stop being virgins.

Soon, her servants took part as well, particularly the older women. They'd washed their faces, copying their countess, and they'd all become young.

Now, with everyone scared of each other, the last decades had been hard for Elizabeth.

So she'd targeted orphanages. Places where there were lots of virgins, innocent virgins without anywhere to go. As soon as they were old enough, they'd be sent out, become part of the world.

So Elizabeth had gone ahead.

Yes, there had been police investigations, but only when the virgins disappeared within short spaces of time, and not far from each other. So she'd done her best.

But now, she took every full moon.

She settled on the couch, looking at the gowns her maids were holding up.

"I think – the red one."

She pulled it on as the maid buttoned her in. "I think I'll look perfect for the wedding anniversary."

"Four hundred years," her maid told her, "keeping him happy."

Elizabeth smiled, "He's much better than my last one," then she set her glass down on the table, "and how are the virgins?"

"Cold, miserable, the younger girl has a cough."

"Excellent," Elizabeth grinned, "too weak to try and fight back."

Then she smiled as she had her hair done up in a bun. She'd have a great anniversary.

Johnny looked up as Elizabeth came in. her maids both brought candles, and he blinked suddenly.

Johnny's pyjamas were filthy. His hair was filthy. He was chained to the wall by his neck. He had no idea how long he'd been here, except he was going to die and would never see Tee again.

He was just sitting on the floor when Elizabeth entered.

He looked up, at the woman who had taken him and planned to murder him.

"I want Tee." He demanded.

Elizabeth just smiled, sitting down on a stone slab near him, as the maids came in.

Johnny could see Elizabeth properly now. As well as her cold, emotionless face, she was wearing a full-length dark red skirt, with black lace at the bottom, thin red material over the upper skirt, a black corset, red and black thin material covering that, thin, see-through red sleeves and a black veil.

Aside from the fact she'd abducted him and she was absolute evil, Johnny couldn't help staring at her.

"Now, it's Johnny, isn't it?" she asked. He nodded. Just staring at her. "I understand you have a younger sister."

"I-I do." Johnny stammered, hardly listening. "Theresa."

Then Elizabeth asked, leaning down her hand, with black, sharp painted nails, to underneath his chin, "Do you want to live, Johnny?"

He answered, staring right in her eyes, "Yes."

"Well, my husband told me that as it's a special anniversary, he can settle for four virgins. So, I don't need you. And you can see your sister."

"What – what do I need to do?" Johnny asked, as Elizabeth stroked his cheek.

Elizabeth then whispered right in his face, "Kill the remaining virgin. Well, I can't tell, as he's violent, but kill Bailey for me. Please?"

Johnny couldn't help looking in her eyes. "I will." He murmured, hypnotized.

Elizabeth grinned, standing up. She turned to one of the maids. "Get the weapons, so he can choose. And crush more berries for me, I think it's needed."

As she left, she took out a small, clear bottle labelled 'Venus' and smiled.

***The police called Ashdene Ridge at eight.

They'd said they'd found Johnny, dazed, wandering round the country and acting drunk.

When May-Li finally saw him again, the others just all stood in the hallway, waiting, as the officer talked over in the office.

"There are – quite a few problems. We found him – with blood."

May-Li and Mike froze.

Mike stammered, "His – blood?"

The officer shook his head. "He wasn't bruised or cut anywhere. He also – I don't know what it is; he acted like he'd just woken up. And then he kept vomiting."

It was a few hours before Johnny could come back, but when he did, Tee just wouldn't stop hugging him, crying onto his shirt.

The others hadn't been found.

And May-Li was wondering why Johnny had just been let go.

And what he did tell them made no sense.

What May-Li seemed to gather was that they'd been held in a cold place somewhere and chained to the wall? Like Charlotte.

And like Charlotte, Johnny had lived.

But why would Elizabeth let someone go when, eternally young or not, she'd killed so many?

She'd had to call Charlotte again about it.

"I am so happy to hear that the little boy came home," she told her, "but it seems she probably made sure he couldn't help the other children."

"What do you mean?" May-Li asked.

"Well," C Charlotte told her, "I saw Elizabeth holding a lot of glass bottles. They were round at the bottom and very thin at the top. Perfume bottles. And, since she is an evil woman, she may have used black magic."

May-Li didn't know what to say. She just couldn't take all of this in.

***Elizabeth stood over the body, as the two men dragged it away.

The boy, Bailey, was dead.

That lovely Johnny; he'd have done anything to see his sister again. And her perfume worked.

She took out five different weapons – sword, from her days in Hungary, spear, from one of her servants' country, a knife and container of salt, one of her old favourites, a cage with spikes in, or the magpie, a contraption she'd designed herself. A six-foot tall steel magpie, which either let go and pierced the victim, or the tail turned round, and, if the victim was lucky, they'd have their throat cut. The unlucky ones…well…

Johnny had simply been choosy, so she gave him one.

Now the body was dumped in the country.

She had to plan.

Plan for her anniversary.

That night, the two men and the two women measured the four children.

And when that happened, and they'd got scissors, they got four outfits for them.

They gave the girls white gowns with long sleeves, basically the sixteenth century version of underwear, and gave the boys shirts and trousers, the same material.

They took their pyjamas and put them on a fire.

May-Li was looking up protection online, hoping to share some with Charlotte.

Charlotte had decided to come over soon, just before 10th August, to help her kill Bathory.

"The thing is, she has eternal youth, not eternal life. The blood keeps her living long," Charlotte had told May-Li, "and it's likely that Elizabeth will hold them in a place that's like her dungeons – some secluded, old place, or near somewhere where the full moon is visible. She won't be too far if the boy was found nearby."

May-Li was about to go when the officers walked in again.

They'd found a brown wooden box about half a mile away, roughly two miles from some castle ruins.

Inside they'd found hair.

Two long bunches were tied with dark red ribbon.

And they'd identified them with DNA.


	4. Chapter 4

Full Moon

It was 7th August. Not that time mattered to the children.

Faith was still wondering when they'd be killed. She stayed awake all the time, then falling asleep out of exhaustion, before having a nightmare and waking up in the dungeon, terrified and in darkness.

Carmen was just confused as to why those women had checked her over, and no one had come in to do anything to her since.

The two boys were just miserable and in despair. The outfits hurt and it was so dim in here. Their rooms were closest to Elizabeth's lounge, and they could see some light. But last night, they kept hearing endless screaming.

_They'd heard voices from just across them. Elizabeth and some other people. There had been a clang, as if something steel was tapped._

_Then Elizabeth had said, "Take one."_

_And for some reason, they'd heard Johnny say, "I – can't choose." "All right then," Elizabeth had said, then ordered, "magpie."_

_Then they'd heard Bailey screaming. It was so painful; they blocked him out, not wanting to imagine what was going on. Then they'd heard Elizabeth order, "Towel and basin, please."_

_They'd heard some splashing and then Elizabeth asking, "Do I look younger?"_

"_Roughly a few years younger."_

"_Well, so close to the full moon, it would work. But with the others' blood, I'll look young forever."_

_Then she had said, "Get – rid of that."_

Johnny was now in his room. The police, after seeing he was acting oddly, had decided to have him under hypnosis. While Mike and May-Li watched, the police officer, the hypnotist and a man recording evidence on both a camera and a tape recorder, did their jobs.

"So," the hypnotist was saying, "can you see at all who took you?"  
"A group of people." Johnny quickly answered.

"OK, tall? Short? Fat? Thin? Genders? Races?"

"They're…I think at least two were white. I didn't see the other three very well."

"OK," the hypnotist went on, "how many were male, how many were female? Take your time, Johnny. If you get nervous, tell me."

Johnny frowned, concentrating.

"Two were male, quite tall, I think foreign. East Europe, I guess? And two females. One was rather young, the other, slightly older. But they were quite strong. One of them dragged me out the window."

"Do you remember being taken from the ladder?"

Johnny quickly replied, "There was no ladder. They just jumped to the ground."

Mike looked over at the hypnotist, who whispered to him, "Not everything comes through that well."

May-Li knew what Johnny really meant. They'd used black magic to get away.

"I…remember being in a dark, stone place."

"OK Johnny," the hypnotist asked, "was it a cellar?"

"No. It wasn't concrete. It was stone."

"Right," the hypnotist went on, "you said you saw the woman in charge. Can you remember her face?"  
"She…" Johnny began smiling, "was amazing. She had…pretty brown hair…she sounded East European."

Then he frowned. "And there's…a huge magpie."  
The hypnotist asked, "A magpie?"

Then Johnny screamed. "I can't scream because it happened, I couldn't scream there! I can now! She's killing him!"

"Who?" the hypnotist asked, "Johnny, calm down. All right? Just calm down."

Johnny started to breathe normally again and after some breaths with the hypnotist told them, "Bailey was in a bench. It was right above a bathtub. The magpie – it was about seven feet tall. And everyone stood way back. The lady – the one in red – she smiled. She was enjoying it.

"And Bailey kept screaming. For me to let him out. He said he was sorry about – when he arrived here and was horrible to me. He – couldn't get out of the bench. He yelled.

"He was crying. He just kept pulling at the chains, he couldn't get out. Then the magpie…"  
Johnny sniffed. Mike looked sick. May-Li just felt cold.

"He – was dead. The lady told me the magpie – could either impale someone, or the tail would swing round and cut their throat. Or their head."

"Which one, Johnny?" the hypnotist asked.

"I don't really remember. I didn't look. They dragged the body away…and then the bathtub came out. And the lady took her clothes off and bathed in Bailey's blood. She kept washing it over her face."

The hypnotist then asked, "And then, Johnny?"  
"I don't remember anything."

***Charlotte arrived at half nine at Ashdene Ridge.

When May-Lu had shown her into the office (after pretending that she was covering there), she took a proper look at Charlotte.

A woman in her late forties, but looked much more and worn out.

Her hair was greying and her body was too thin.

May-Li wondered how the thirty-one years had affected her.

"The…children…" Charlotte was saying, "are there any – old places near here?"

May-Li thought.

"There's this late medieval castle about three miles from here. It's called 'Regii Generis'. But it's also called, and this is the name with the tourist board, 'Sanguinem'. It's got a host of old dungeons."

Charlotte nodded. "OK. But why does the care worker act so friendly with you?"  
May-Li looked down.

"I'm not an officer. I'm a care worker. And I – I just wanted help in finding the children."

Charlotte pursed her lips, then looked annoyed, then angry, then understanding.

"If – those girls had lived, I would have done exactly the same to help them. I would have gone there and tried to help them escape."

Faith was in the same room as Carmen now.

The women had to clean the dungeons, so they'd put Rick in Frank's room, and put the two girls together.

Carmen and Faith probably suffered the most here.

Both with ridiculously short haircuts, thin, in chemises, barefoot, knowing that they'd soon be dead, chained to the wall by their necks, they felt useless.

Then Carmen asked, her voice hoarse from crying and not talking, "Faith, how do we escape?"

Faith crawled along the floor beside Carmen. "I think I have an idea."

And for the first time in days, the two girls smiled.

When the women were coming in to give the girls their meal, Faith hid behind the door.

Carmen just lay on the floor, waiting.

When the woman came in, Faith blew loudly.

The candle light went out.

Then Carmen tripped the woman up. The tray clattered to the floor.

Carmen fumbled on the woman for her belt, then the keys.

Fiddling with each key and finding the right one would have been tricky anyway, but in the dark it was almost impossible.

Faith had reached her chain and held some found the woman's neck, but not too tight. Just enough so the woman was distracted.

"Have you found it?" Carmen ignored her, trying the next key.

After un locking her neck, she handed the keys to Faith, as she lay on top of the woman and held her chain round her neck, holding her down.

"You can not do this," the woman choked, "because the Countess will be very angry."

"And?" Faith asked, unlocking her neck.

"The Countess will be very angry with me. And she may kill me. And maybe you."

But the girls ignored that, as Faith felt something small, thin and made of wood on the floor. Striking it, she grabbed Carmen's hand, which already held the keys, and walked out to where the boys were.

As Carmen tried unlocking the door, she heard Frank mumbling, "Leave us alone."

Then she told him, "Frank , it's us."

"Is it them?" Rick asked.

There was a noise, Frank moving to the door. "What are you doing?"  
"Getting you out." Carmen told him, as her sweating hands slipped with the keys. Then the two girls paused, as they heard someone coming.

"Where are you?" they heard Elizabeth bark, as the girls paused and listened.

Looking down the forbidding, dark end of the corridor in the other direction, they looked at each other.

And ran.

**A/N: I'm sorry my chapters are so short, but I'm a bit busy. I'll definitely update soon, but it may not be tomorrow. I'm trying to get done by August, however.**


	5. Chapter 5

Sacrifice

**A/N: Sorry I rushed it, but I've been really tired recently. I made this one the longest yet. The next chapter's the last one and I hope you enjoyed it.**

Elizabeth roared at the servants. "You _stupid_ fools!"

The two women cowered.

"_How_ could you just let them go? You really are useless! My husband demands four virgins and it's not easy to get virgins so quickly before the full moon."

She turned round, furious.

Then she asked the servants, "Have they got outside yet?"

"Well, we ran to the end of the corridor, and the main door was open."

Elizabeth grinned. "They're not going to be hard to find, in white. Go, after them."

Faith and Carmen, still holding hands, were running down the hillside, before reaching the motorway.

Exhausted, barely able to see because of clouds blocking the moon, they'd run straight to the street-lights.

It wasn't a very busy lane, just a couple of cars running down, but they decided it was better than nothing.

"Come on!" Faith shouted, dragging Carmen along. Because Faith was so fast, Carmen had trouble keeping up, even almost tripping a few times.

But they soon found a corner and saw a car coming up close.

Waving their arms and screaming, it soon stopped.

A guy in his forties or fifties with a cigarette in his mouth stopped, pulling down the window.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

Faith just panted, "Police…please."

He took out the cigarette, and noticed Carmen, who was hanging onto Faith, panting and coughing.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah. These…people…they're after…"

The guy's eyes widened and he told them, "Well, the police station's about a mile from here. I'm heading to that town anyway. You guys want a lift?"

Faith had no idea what to do. She knew it was wrong going in his car, but they really didn't have any choice. Elizabeth and her servants may be after them.

She nodded, as she and Carmen climbed into the backseat.

Carmen hissed, half-asleep, as she settled, "What do we do?"  
Faith looked at the guy, driving, and told her, "If anything goes wrong, just try and grab the steering wheel and scream."

As they ploughed on, Carmen just lay against Faith, asleep.

The man at the wheel asked, "Your friend OK?"  
"Yeah," Faith mumbled, "but we need to get the police."

The man asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what did they do to you kids?"

Faith swallowed. "I – we've been missing – I don't know how long."

She wiped her eye and then looked in the distance as the lights of a village or town came up.

"Son," the man told her, "I've come from the continent and I've been working my back off for ages. I haven't heard."

Faith looked up. "We're girls."

The man gabbled, "Oh. Sorry."

Faith asked, "Where's the station?"  
"Oh, just round here." He turned a corner and Faith got out, helping Carmen out.

"I'm going round the corner, if the police need me. Good luck."

As Faith stood outside with Carmen, she watched as the car left. Going inside the station, she felt as if her luck was turning.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had her servants blowing the black dust round the edges of the castle.

She was using black magic to cause investigators to not see them, or the boys, as well as thinking of a new step of her plan.

"I knew taking the children so quickly could have been a mistake," she said, as her servants returned, "but it's no problem."

She then asked, "My best red dress, please," and as the two men left the room, "oh, hook the boys up on those, what are they?"  
"Blood thinners, Countess."  
"Those. And please make sure I'm not seen by the police."

When Rick opened his eyes, he noticed his arm felt heavier. As he felt for his arm, he found a long tube coming out of his arm.

He felt upwards, and found a plastic, hard bag and something cold with wheels.

He looked toward the door, as a terrifying, orange glow seemed to come from outside.

He suddenly felt very hot. But at the same time, he still felt very cold. He looked under the door and saw red shoes and the bottom of a long, red dress, as something bright and hot closed and it went black.

The door swung open and Elizabeth, now holding a candle, smiled at him. "Hello boys," she grinned, "my husband just spoke with me and he's _very_ angry at the fact that the two girls ran away, but don't worry, you won't have to suffer much. He just thinks having two young boys' blood is enough for him.

"Actually, I decided that I might like to have a bit of fun. It won't be too much. No trouble at all. For me."

And she smiled evilly.

***At Ashdene Ridge, no one noticed when it happened.

Although some hours earlier, Faith and Carmen had been checked over and brought back, completely upset and weeping, no-one was asleep, worrying about the boys.

Then the apparitions appeared.

When Floss and Jody looked at their doors, they saw them. They just saw Frank and Rick at the doors.

They didn't think about what it really was. Just – that they had to follow them.

The apparitions, floating, silent, lured the two girls out of the building, over the wall, and through the way there.

Across back alleys, over big walls, walking through the fields barefoot, not knowing or caring what was going on.

Then they heard her.

Elizabeth.

"Come on girls," she was whispering, "come here."

And when they woke up properly, they saw themselves in an odd, large room. And Elizabeth was looking at them, smiling evilly.

Before they could get to grips with where they were, they were grabbed from behind.

One of the men held Jody's arms above her, the other lifted Floss up, screaming.

"What's going on?" Jody demanded.

Elizabeth smiled. "You're to be the sacrifices. Pity, I prefer taking older girls, but as I promised that stupid boy he could keep his sister, well, things just got difficult."

Then Jody asked, "Sacrifice?"

Elizabeth looked right at her. "I need four virgins for my husband. I need to bathe in your blood."

Jody's eyes widened.

"Well tell your husband he's…"

"Don't speak about him like that!" Elizabeth hissed.

Then she smiled. "My husband's the Devil. You'll see him _very_ soon, kid."

***Though the police had searched the nearby castle, where all three children had been found, to look for the missing boys, and now, two more missing girls, it had been ages and they were admitting that the chances of them being found alive were very small.

May-Li just looked at Charlotte in the German car. It was 10th August, the full moon, and the sacrifices would be tonight.

"I…" May-Li began, straightening up, "have to sort this out. Now. It's full moon. I think where the…will be is roughly at the cliff nearby. It's the highest point in the nearest half a mile, so I'd say it's a good option."

Charlotte then looked at May-Li. "I've handled these people before. I barely got out alive. Just…try and make sure."

May-Li frowned. "Make sure what?"

"Are you…protected?"

May-Li asked, "Protected? I thought we had holy water."

Then her eyes widened. She looked lost for words. "Oh. Err, no."

Then she just said, "But it's nearly sunset. It's the last chance to save the kids."

When they arrived at the castle, they started looking round near the main entrance.

"Right," May-Li was saying, "the dungeons are just under this area, so…"

Charlotte then tripped by the door, sending the opened bottle of holy water in May-Li's eyes.

May-Li blinked rapidly, as Charlotte apologized.

May-Li was about to say it didn't matter, before she then looked down.

"Hey, I can see Elizabeth!" she hissed, pointing over the balcony.

"Where?" Charlotte asked, though Elizabeth was in plain view.

"There!" May-Li hissed, as she brought her back.

"Wait, they use black magic," she looked as Elizabeth went into another room downstairs, "I think whatever they did protected themselves in the castle so no one can find them!"

Then she looked below. After going down the stairs, she gingerly stepped round to the room below.

She heard Elizabeth shouting. "You idiot!" Then walking round.

"I said not to put it aside!"  
"Countess, you told me to make sure the blood was thin."

"Well, you don't sniff it! And are we going now? The moon will be up soon?"  
"I am just getting our guests ready."

Elizabeth answered, "Good. And put the potions in the box, we'll be moving quickly. This one's been quick.

"Countess, where are we moving?"

"Hell."

Then absolute silence, as they heard them leave. Possibly through another entrance. May-Li opened the door – why it was actually open made her think, before remembering it was past closing time, and one of them must have got a key – and went down.

What she saw looked right out of a movie.

She saw the candles lit everywhere, lighting up the room, a coffee table from the Edwardian times, with a matching couch, and a box on the table.

In the wooden box were some bottles, all small and might have been perfume bottles.

They were labelled, in rather elegant handwriting, 'Venus', 'Tempt', 'Fire', 'Hide', 'Youth Protection', 'Magpie' and 'Gateway'.

As Charlotte told May-Li, "We need to go soon. We need to get to the cliff." May-Li was putting the bottles on the table.

"What are you doing?"  
"You said we needed protection. Well, I've got it sorted."

***At the altar, Elizabeth smiled as she looked out at the sea.

Tonight, she'd be with her husband again. She'd be in hell.

He'd said to her that as it was the anniversary, she could come down to Hell. And be his queen.

A lot of women had been his queens. Mary Ann Cotton. Ilse Koch. Lizzie Borden. Isabella of Carlisle had been close, but never made it to the finals.

Now she was to be his new one. A devious, wicked woman who'd killed many even before an agreement with the Devil.

She then looked back at the children.

Rick was by the altar, while Frank was chained on the altar, with funnels in leading to the bathtub underneath. The girls, just so tiny, were simply too weak, in tiny chemises and hair hacked off.

Floss' was so big for her that if she'd walk, she'd trip over.

The youngest that Elizabeth had killed in her life in Hungary was a ten-year-old peasant. Now, she'd break that record.

The oldest virgin, oddly enough, that she'd killed was a maid in Germany, at the beginning of the last century. Fifty-seven and filled with blood.

The men held the girls close to them, as the men stood over the altar.

As May-Li and Charlotte, just arriving, hid behind a well nearby and looked, Elizabeth spread her arms out.

"Now then," she called above the wind, "you four are going to be my last victims. I have killed virgins for over four hundred years and not only are you going to be the suppliers for my youth, by having me bathe in your blood, as soon as you are all gone and I just leave your bodies for the animals, I will be going through the gateway to my husband.

"I understand that you don't want to die but – what do I care? Of course I'm going to kill you."

She then laughed.

"Thing is, it's been _very_ hard killing and having so much blood wash in me. But it worked. I look thirty and you lot are giving me so much happiness."

Then she looked at the women. "Do that kid first. He looks like he has a lot of blood."

As the women held Frank's head down at the altar, he started shouting, "Please! Don't do this!"

Elizabeth told him, "It's for my youth. And I can look my best."

"It's not about looking your best." Frank pleaded.

"In my day, it has. Oh, how do you want to die?"

May-Li just couldn't go ahead. Wetting the holy water all over herself, she looked across at Charlotte. "What now?"

"You go ahead and try and get them free. I'm going out to Elizabeth."

The women had brought over the sword, spear, the knife and salt, and the cage with spikes inside. The magpie was too heavy to come here.

"You can choose." Elizabeth told Frank.

Frank glared at her. "I'm not choosing. I'm not going to be sacrificed."

She looked right at them. "I'll choose one for you. Anything to say before I bathe in your blood?"

Frank shouted something rude.

"Idiot child." She told him, before grabbing the knife and salt.

Rick, Jody and Floss looked away, trying not to hear Frank screaming.

Though when he stopped, it was worse.

The women moved the altar, after squeezing out as much blood as they could, and Elizabeth reached inside and covered her arms in as much blood as she could.

After rubbing constantly, she breathed in and then told her servants, "The other boy next."

As the two women put the altar back, they picked Rick up. He screamed at them, kicking, before the two women, though difficultly, managed to chain him to the altar.

"So," Elizabeth asked, "how do you want to die?"

Charlotte had come out with a crucifix and holy water, "You let those kids go now!"

Elizabeth turned. She stared. And then laughed.

"Charlotte?" she asked, "I heard about you."

Then she swaggered down, not afraid of what Charlotte was holding. "But you always cause problems."

Charlotte grimaced, "You killed my friends."

"And they gave me a younger face."

Elizabeth then looked over Charlotte. "Even if my servants got it wrong then, so much time has passed, you'll definitely be wrong now. You're not a virgin."

Charlotte told her, shoving the crucifix right in her face, "But I don't care."

May-Li was now by the men, holding the sword. It was slightly heavy, but she only needed it for a second.

"You are _such_ a huge waste of time," Elizabeth didn't dare move from Charlotte, "because you just chose to get it before I managed to take you. Stupid girl. You were so young and pretty then. You wouldn't have had the trouble of having to grow as old and ugly as you are now."

May-Li swung the sword at the backs of the men.

They screamed and Elizabeth and the women turned as Charlotte threw water in Elizabeth's face.

Elizabeth screamed as it went in her eyes, steam coming from them.

May-Li dropped the sword as the women ran over, holding the girl's hands as she began to run.

"Wait!" Floss shouted, stumbling over.

May-Li picked her up, but in that short space of time, Elizabeth had managed to run back to the altar.

"You fool!" she screamed at May-Li, as she stood over Rick with the knife.

"You're disgusting!" May-Li cried back, some way further down the cliff, holding onto Floss, and gripping Jody's hand. "You kill just so you can look good?"

"You're just silly," Elizabeth snapped, "and I'm the one with power. In fact, I can think of several different things to call you right now, a lot of them racist, but I'm not going to bother because I'm opening the gateway."  
May-Li was confused. "You wanted to sacrifice the kids."

"Well, I do. But it wasn't to open the gate. I do that when I want. I sacrificed them so I can look good for my anniversary."

May-Li really didn't think Elizabeth could get any lower, though she'd seen enough.

"Anyway, I've lived for four hundred years without changing much, so I'm settling in soon."

May-Li asked, "Four hundred years?"

"Haven't you worked it out? Elizabeth asked, "I'm Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory. The tigress, the one who killed six hundred girls to look young."

"The inspiration for Dracula…" May-Li muttered, before saying, "You're still not getting married."

Elizabeth laughed. "And how would you know? It's a promise."

May-Li looked at the box her servant was holding.

And then she thought.


	6. Chapter 6

Gateway

**A/N: This is the last chapter. Thank you for the reviews. Oh, I know Dracula was a real person, I meant the inspiration for the 1898 book.**

May-Li looked at Elizabeth, as Elizabeth started to get the bottle labelled 'Fire' out. As Elizabeth started to throw the contents in the direction of May-Li, Jody and Floss started to scream and tugging at May-Li.

But nothing happened. The contents just splashed onto the ground.

Elizabeth looked at the bottle, tapping it.

Then she looked at her bottles.

She picked up the one labelled 'Magpie' and then, carefully, poured some on the end of her finger.

She screamed loudly, dropping the bottle. But that made it splash over her and she fell to the ground.

The two women ran over to help.

Charlotte took that chance, and ran up to Rick, using the keys by the side to get him free. Then she held his arm, taking him down the cliff.

Elizabeth and her servants didn't see or care. Elizabeth just groaned.

"Oh, fine then. I'll just go to my husband."

She got the bottle labelled 'Gateway', not really thinking.

Then when a large, red and orange portal opened, sending blinding light, as bright as day, down to the whole cliff, a warm feeling going through Charlotte, May-Li and the kids, Elizabeth smiled, going to enter.

Then there was a huge roar from inside. It sounded inhuman and odd. It sounded like several animals at the same time. But to May-Li, paying the most attention, it sounded like a hundred hyenas being tortured.

Elizabeth, puzzled, asked, "Love?"

Then she looked at the bottle.

She screamed in anguish, turning round to see the group running off. Then Elizabeth was dragged into the portal, screaming.

"How dare you! You said I'm your queen!"

Everyone looked back as Elizabeth was pulled in, screaming, before it closed.

Then May-Li looked as the two women, one of them carrying the box with bottles, came up.

May-Li looked at them. "I have no idea if you understand me, but she's gone. I have no idea…why or how you met her, but she's gone and she won't come back. She obviously made the Devil have a lot of pain with the holy water in the bottle. So, I don't care what you do now, just don't hurt anyone again."

"Please," one of the women said, "one thing."

One of them unscrewed the bottle that said 'Youth Restoration'.

Then she threw it in Rick, Jody and Floss' faces.

As they blinked, the girls reached up to their heads, squealing when they found their hair back.

Rick looked healthier, had more colour and began to smile again.

May-Li saw the women go off, but she didn't care.

The children were back.

***The next day, when they'd got back to Ashdene Ridge, May-Li had said she just found the kids wandering around. She said they didn't remember anything.

Surely it would get the police off.

In the office, Mike told May-Li he wasn't convinced.

"Faith and Carmen said something about a woman who wanted to kill them. Now, what exactly is going on?"  
But May-Li just smiled.

**A/N: Sorry it's rushed. But I hope you liked the story.**


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